Iain Dale is predicting Prezza will go this week, Guido is not so sure, Prescott is like a limpet to the perks of office. Downing Street is said to be lining up Miliband to take over his role (shades of Thatcher over-promoting Major as her heir as the end approached).The Sunday Times reports that Max Clifford has two new mistresses ready to do a kiss and tell for £150,000 each. Better be quick Max, the BBC has found a public interest angle to get in on the chase. One of the women has benefitted financially from the patronage of the DPM. Even after losing her job with one Quango, she managed to be found a place in another Quango. All this of course is funded by the taxpayer, so that gives a legitimate, high-minded, abuse-of-power, public interest angle above and beyond the tittle-tattle that Auntie Beeb is too grand to deal in…

What the media pundits ignore is that not only is the voting public more interested in Prezza’s sleaziness, his propensity to “look after” his women with jobs at the taxpayers expense is actually just as corrupt as his dodgy dealings with billionaires. In the past the powerful rewarded their courtesans out of their own pocket, Prezza sees them paid with public money.

UPDATE : Downing Street is trying to quash the idea that Miliband is in the running. Guido suspects the story is a bit of spin by one of the would-be DPMs floating the name as a provocation.